WM city officials get feedback from community on block grant funds

WM city officials get feedback from community on block grant funds

Public hearing gives residents opportunity to weigh in on how $ 290,000 will be spent

news@theeveningtimes.com

Here comes the rabbit!

The first round of Community Development Block Grant Entitlement Program action plan hearings went off at West Memphis City Hall Monday night. Citizens representing different interests in the city chased their vision for dividing up a $290,000 entitlement grant. Citizens asked questions about how the program had operated and brainstormed ideas to amend the 2016-2020 five year city consolidation plan during the coming year.

This was the first of two meetings and citizen suggestions for dividing the pie for the fiscal year starting in July were taken. City Planner Paul Luker presided over the lively meeting fielding questions and taking suggestions from 30 participants. Five city councilors, a former candidate for mayor, a quorum court justice, a boys club director and board of Realtors representatives sprinkled throughout the crowd that also included concerned citizens.

Luker began by listing the current funding categories along with the funds allotted to each activity. Many questions about how funding had been used in the past were asked and suggestions from the audience were bandied about. The city had been accustomed to getting a $500,000 allotment based on population.

According to Luke the dollars have been dwindling in recent years, not so much for population loss in the city but population booms in northwest Arkansas.

CDBG funds allotted to West Memphis have dwin- dled by 40 percent during Luker’s tenure with the city.

Fair Housing: In recent years funding in this category shifted from a housing seminar to publicizing fair housing programs. Meeting participants pined for the days of a housing info-fair. Luker pointed out one factor that led to the demise of the seminars was the money in that category was earmarked for reimbursing the expenses and no organization had offered to front the cost. That’s when the city shifted to advertising, moving away from the fair. “What we’ve done for the last two years is we’ve used it to buy literature to promote fair housing, with posters and coloring books to give to the elementary schools,” said Luker. “What HUD wanted was somebody to take the initiative to come out of pocket and pay for all that HUD would reimburse.” Real estate Brokers Anita Bell and Mike Ford offered

to partner with the city to front the funds and revive the seminar. “Those of us in local real estate were wondering if we could do a fair housing seminar with our local board and partner somehow,” said Bell. “We could do something through the Board of Realtors we could do the paper work to be reimbursed,” said Ford. “We could set something up in conjunction with national fair housing month with Realtor activities.”

Demolishing Condemned

Houses:

$16,000 in CDBG funds goes toward demolishing condemned houses in the city. The general budget also allocates $31,000 for contractors to bid through the Planning Department. The combined funds raze 15-20 house per year according to Luker with 61 houses currently flagged for demolition.

Ford called for highly visible impact targeting specific blocks with both demolition and rehab

Ford suggested community vegetable gardens on abandoned home lots.

Luker indicated private property issues prevented that.

“There are gardens all over the country,” urged Ford. “Other communities are doing it, we’ve got to figure it out.”

Councilor Marco McClendon suggested cost savings by spraying lots instead of mowing.

Rehabilitating Houses:

Funds typically go toward summer church groups doing designated fix ups in the city. Home owners apply for consideration and the projects awarded through the city housing authority. 34 houses got new screens, rotted boards replaced and fresh paint last summer.

Councilor Willis Mondy wanted more substantial repairs. Luker said he’d rather see houses fixed up and maintained than neglected and later torn down.

“Should you do many houses with cosmetics or should you work on fewer houses with substantial work?” said Luker. “A home fund is coming back that allows us to do more substantial work.”

“Why did we drop that in the first place,” asked Mondy.

“They kept changing the rules on us,” said Luker.

“One of the last changes was we needed a certified home specialist before you could even apply for grant money.”

Youth Programs: Councilor Melanie Hutchinson and Wonder City Boys Club Director Carolyn Anthony pursued the percent of CDBG funds designated for summer youth programming. Luker indicated that some interested parties inquired about the money but it remains unallocated.

Luker said youth funds were set up for reimbursements and that a group would have to front the money and run the program or come in with companion grants to seed summer youth activities. Justice Vicki Robertson wanted a revival at the boarded up the Roberta Jackson Neighborhood Center.

“Before the Roberta Jackson Center closed they had the teenagers and we hand the elementary students, with redbirds sponsored baseball in the afternoons,” said Anthony. “Now we have been getting all them in there and it is hard to even get the a room – not enough time or space. We need more staffing to oversee the youth along with summer academics.”

“How can you ask residents to clean it up and keep it up when the city cannot even maintain its own building,” asked Vickie Robertson about the center abandoned two years ago.

A follow-up meeting, was set for Feb. 6, at 5 p.m. in city hall. The next meeting agenda allows for citizen response to the Planning and Development proposals emerging from the first meeting and prioritize activities before city council acts to adopt the new annual action plan.

By John Rech